ElementsDaily

Online marketing is all that it’s cracked up to be and isn’t as difficult as it’s cracked up to be.

It doesn’t even need to be a wazoo marketing campaign. In fact, it’s already on every page of your website. It’s your copy. If crafted thoughtfully and clearly, your entire website is the Marketing Manager who sells your company, your brand, your product or your service 24/7/365 (or 366 depending).

Great website content is the foundation for driving great qualified leads to your site. But what makes the content great? Snappy writing? Tech-speak and pop culture buzzwords? Lots of it? Not really…and it’s much simpler than finding your inner-copywriter.

GET IN THE 10-RING…KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Who are you speaking to? What is your niche market? What does your target audience want and need? Define these users and tailor your copy to them. Your copy should address their specific wants, needs, questions or “yeah, but…” hurdles, just like an in-person sales pitch would do.

Take some time to figure out your users’ behavior and habits on your site. Your website host, Google Analytics reports or other web stat program can tell you a lot about things such as:

• ~ What page gets the most user time?
• ~ What time do you get the most visitors?
• ~ From which page do users most often bail from your site?

PUT OUT A CREATIVE WELCOME MAT

Here’s where the snappy writing does help.

Your site headlines are quick snippets of information. Your users often decide whether they are interested in your site and/or page right here. So easy-to-understand, attention-grabbing headlines will help make users want to hang on your door step and then delve deeper into your website.

Choose your words wisely and keep them relevant to what your users want to know.

THE SCAN ARTIST

A copy-heavy page is not well-received or read in full. But don’t distract your user with a ton of images, flash, slideshows, automatic videos or intro music either.
Users tend to skim through websites and scan pages, so large paragraphs are not useful, even if you think it will help with key word relevancy. Your user will skip out before you know it.

• ~ Write short 4-5 line paragraphs. Even a one-liner, now and then, adds good je ne sais quoi.
• ~ Use bullet-point lists.
• ~ Mix the above two to break up the page.
• ~ Use subheads to divide longer chunks of copy.
• ~ Use easy-to-read, web-friendly fonts like Verdana or Arial.
• ~ Avoid dark, patternend backgrounds; a light-colored plain background gives the most readability.
• ~ Less is more – choose your images and graphics carefully and make them applicable to the copy.

Hot Chillys does this really well …

HOW’S YOUR STREET CRED?…OK, WEB CRED?

How is what you have to say more credible than the rest of oh, say, every other company in your industry that has a website? Yep, those hundreds, maybe even thousands of sites?

People want to know and trust that what you’re offering has credibility, integrity, quality…you need to establish this quickly and early on in your users’ visit.

• ~ Your About Us section – what about you? Talk about your credentials and what separates you from the rest of the herd. Show your users you are solid.
• ~ Who are you? Not your company, product or service as a business or commercial entity, but as a person. Make your offering relevant as a person, not as an object. Your users want to relate to the total package and the way to do that is tell them who you are, what’s your story?
• ~ Use testimonials to build trust. Testimonials from your happy clients or customers pack a powerful punch to your credibility. Engage past clients to write about their expectations and results they received by partnering with you. Make sure to include your client’s name, business name and their website URL…it helps the user know the bandwagon is real.

GOOD TO GREAT

Features are good, but get to the real great thing: what benefits do you offer? How do you fill a need and make your future client’s life easy, painless and stress-free? Anticipate that your client will want to know “what do I get out of this?” and show them how you can solve their problems.

• ~ Good: ElementsLocal offers Franchise companies a website platform that provides a local website for each of their Franchisees.
• ~ Great: ElementsLocal provides each Franchisee with a customizable local website in one-third the cost AND capitalizes on the strength and power of national branding and established online presence.

CALLS TO ACTION

Now that your user must absolutely have your product or service, you need to let them know how to get it. Make your calls to action clear and easy to find. Include them in several places (tastefully) on each page, for example as a side bar button.

• ~ Use the online wizard to purchase your site in 4 easy steps. (inline copy)
• ~ Purchase your site now! (button copy)
• ~ Click here to receive your sprocket, risk-free! (inline copy)
• ~ Order your sprocket! (button copy)

Your website copy, especially that on your home page, is your 15 seconds for a great first impression—that awesome smile and pleasantly firm handshake. Your clients need to be crystal clear about why you are the person they should partner with.

You don’t need to embark on a site overhaul and rewrite all your content. Employing some of these techniques will help you build your website into an effective marketing tool. Employ all of them and you’ll produce an outstanding online marketing manager who will sell your product or service 8760 (or 8784 depending).

Driving high-quality leads with your website is a long-term strategy that requires commitment, persistence and patience. As many people will tell you, content IS king, please internalize that and realize that your customers are at your website because they are looking for better information …

It’s our job to give it to them …

Write Great Content

Your website content should be useful to your users. They need to see value in your articles and your topics. Customer testimonials, case studies and work examples are great for service based businesses. Product businesses should concentrate on differentiation with competitors and testimonials.

One new article per week to give your customers consistent meaningful information about your company, your people and your accomplishments.

Tell People About Your Great Content

Always mention your website in all advertising. Submit a press release to the PRWeb or Business Wire to inform people about your great content and accomplishments. Send press to the Chambers, clubs and community organizations that your company is affiliated with.

Use your trade media to drive qualified people to your website by featuring your content in articles or advertisements in industry trade publications.

Link to Others with Great Content

Linking to others websites with quality content will tie your brands together. The more you link to other websites the more links you’ll receive to your website, which increases your websites search engine listings.

Your users will also remember that your website was the go-to source for information from your content and the links on your site.

Just remember, that great content is the foundation for driving great qualified leads to your website.

As the primary trainer for ELEMENTS software, I work with many first-time users. It’s been my experience that working on a website is intimidating to many people. I also encountered this same fear when I first began working on websites.

Let’s focus on items first-time users should become very familiar with.

Kid’s Play with Links and Images

Websites are like play dough: there is little that cannot be tweaked or fixed. I always tell my users, get your hands dirty because it is the easiest way to learn; you’ll always be able to fix or undo something you didn’t quite intend to happen.

I would recommend learning to do these 2 items first:
1. Add an Image
2. Create a link

Images will allow users to become more familiar with a product or service you are displaying on your site. Links will allow users to move freely from one page to another. Links can also be used to highlight partners or affiliates, and allow them to view their own websites as well. Both features will increase the amount of time your users spend on your site.

With very little effort you can move to the next step, combine these two features and create exciting ‘Pop-up’ images. By mastering these two, simple, but key items, you will find yourself quickly editing your website making it more interactive and user-friendly.

One of the top ways Google determines website ranking is by how many different websites link to your website, which will be discussed in a future Elements Daily.

• Relationship Building & Management
  Web marketing is a great way to enhance your relationship building. Sending a monthly email to customers and sales prospects in your business network keeps them knowledgeable about how your business will provide them with the very best service possible. These emails should focus on your accomplishments and educational items such as “how tos” and business announcements.
• Lead Generation
  Drive local leads by creating great local content on your local website. This content will be picked up by Google and other search engines, which will list your site in their search results. The better your content, the higher you’ll rank on the search engines. Each website might feature emergency calls to action as well as newsletter and contact us forms for lead generation.
• Public Relations
  Local web marketing is great for public relations, as the news media will look up your website and reference it in any media coverage you receive. Reporters will use your web site to verify research and the capabilities of your company.
  
• Professional Creditability
  Increase the creditability of your business by publicizing your website with press releases, email marketing and adding your domain name on your business cards. Local Paul Davis Restoration websites are world-class, professional sites that build on the brand and creditability of the national websites.

ElementsLocal – Use the power of your franchise network to dominate your industry.